legal compilation in early modern denmark and norway Again, large amounts of legal material were compiled mainly to facilitate the practical application of law, and in particular to make legislation accessible for lawyers. The authors of these extracts were mainly legal practitioners. One example was Jens Christian Lowum’s Extract og Udtog af de kongelige Befalinger som ved allernaadigst udgivne og trykte forordninger ere bekiendtgiorte, vedkommende Norge (1772). In the foreword he stated his intention to make the work of Norwegian officials and other legal practitioners easier by summarizing the most relevant regulations in one volume. This was obviously also the intention of other more comprehensive works, often running to many volumes and thousands of pages. Laurids Fogtman (1766–1776, with a second edition by Hurtigkarl in 1809), J. H. Schou (1777) and F. A.Wessel-Berg (1841) emphasize in their forewords the usefulness of their collections for scholarly purposes, particularly for the systematization of law and to promote legal historical analysis.108 The more systematic topical order chosen by Fogtman for each volume was, it seems, more popular than Schou’s chronological presentation. Consequently, Wessel-Berg and Fogtman’s later editor Frederik Theodor Hurtigkarl continued to arrange their collections in the fashion Fogtman introduced. Despite these different approaches to presenting the legal material, either chronological or topical, all compilers struggled to strike a balance between completeness and practical relevance.109 The way the compilers arranged their material and justified their respective methods of selection shows they applied different strategies and til intet’ (1764). ‘Lovens Aand beroer paa Lovgiverens Aand, men at eftersøge Lovgiverens Aand, hvad er det andet, end at søge i Mørket? Og hvem ville vel giøre sig Umage for enn saa vidløftig og møisommelig Undersøgning, der, hvor Lov og Ret trives som et Handværk, hvor Lovkyndighed sættes ikke i at forstaae den Lov man skal bruge, men i at bruge den Lov man ikke forstaaer (1765). 108 Laurids Fogtman, Kongelige Rescripter, Resolutioner og Collegialbreve for Danmark og Norge, utogviis udgivne i chronologisk Orden. Udgivet i 17 Bind, 17 vols (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1786–1812) (2nd edn, 1809, ed. Frederik Hurtigkarl); Jacob Henrik Schou, Chronologisk Register over de Kongelige Forordninger og aabne Breve, som fra 1670 til 1775 Aars Udgang ere udkomne (Copenhagen, 1777); Fredrik August Wessel-Berg, Kongelige Rescripter, Resolutioner, og Collegiale- Breve for Norge i Tidsrummet 1660–1813, i: 1660–1746(Christiania (Oslo): Cappeln 1841). 109 See Schou 1777, i., foreword; Wessel-Berg 1841, foreword. 225
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